Perhaps We Should Advertise This
Oct 6th, 2008 at 2:21 pm by Susie
I think most voters would be interested, don’t you?
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan “budget neutral,” as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.
In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.
But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain’s senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.
An HMO costs a family of four about $1,250 per month in Washington State. Or it did a few years ago when I was semi-retired. So my tax credit will cover me for the first four months, and then what?
Even if it was truly “budget neutral” by removing tax loopholes from the wealthy, it still leaves a gaping hole in the coverage. And then to reduce coverage on the least amongst us on top of it; I reckon we taxpayers will pick up the slack there, too.
Nice plan, McSame. More deregulation needed here…
The McCain campaign has now adopted the slogan: MORE WARS! LESS HEALTH CARE! I think Biden hit this one out of the park in the debate last week and I’m sure that Obama will keep repeating it.
Holtz-Eakin really is the gift that keeps on giving. He probably also wrote the article that McCain signed extolling the example of deregulation of the financial markets as a model for fixing health care. And came up with the original plan to tax health benefits.
If there’s a downside, it is that Obama can safely run against Bush and McCain’s record, which only gets worse every day. But we always knew that we would have to organize to push him to be a progressive.